Cultural evolution caused broad-scale historical declines of large mammals across China

Cultural evolution has been the dominant driver of range contractions in megafauna taxa across China since the beginning of the Common Era, with little or no direct importance of climate. A research team led by Aarhus University along with collaborators from Nanjing University analyzed maps of megafauna distribution dynamics and societal development based on Chinese archival records alongside data on climate across China from 2 to 1953 CE.